A Catholic church in Malaysia which prays to Allah has prompted a court case over who can use the word.
Muslim leaders say Islam should be the only faith to use it, saying its use in other faiths could lead to confusion and conversions.
Robin Brant reports from Kuala Lumpur.
Bureaucrats kept only ‘trusted’ prime ministers in loop
Kyodo News
A secret accord between Tokyo and Washington on moving U.S. nuclear weapons through Japanese territory has been controlled by top Foreign Ministry bureaucrats who have told only a handful of “trusted” prime ministers and foreign ministers of its existence, four former top ministry officials have revealed.
All four were vice foreign ministers, the top bureaucratic post in the ministry. The limited number of prime ministers told of the secret accord included Ryutaro Hashimoto and Keizo Obuchi, the former officials said.
The pact gives Japan’s tacit approval that U.S. aircraft or naval vessels carrying nuclear weapons can transit Japan.
The revelation indicates that Foreign Ministry bureaucrats have controlled the top-secret matter, not elected officials.
The two allies concluded the secret agreement when the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was revised in 1960. Although the secret accord became publicly known through the declassification of U.S. diplomatic documents in the late 1990s, the Japanese government has consistently denied its existence.
The government has publicly adhered to the “three nonnuclear principles” of not possessing or developing nuclear weapons, or allowing them on Japanese territory.
It is the first time former top Foreign Ministry bureaucrats have admitted that some prime ministers and foreign ministers knew about the secret deal.
The revelation may shatter the government’s long-standing denial and require it to be held accountable to the public.
Japan Times
Kamila Hyat
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor
The violent opposition in Sindh to the presence of IDPs in the province is a shocking reminder of the divisions that have effectively fractured society.
The MQM and Sindhi nationalist parties have united forces to oppose the entry of the IDPs to the province. The essential humanitarian element of their situation has been lost amidst the blinding hate inspired by ethnic factors, which has during the past few months already triggered episodes of mayhem in Karachi. The inter-connections between different parts of a country which make it one nation rather than a collection of isolated portions of territory have been lost.
There are many aspects to this issue that now confront us head on. The ethnic issue has played a part in creating a situation where only 38 per cent of NWFP and the adjacent FATA areas, according to a map put out by the BBC, are under the control of the Pakistan government. The Taliban have in many places used ethnicity almost as much as religion to establish their grip. Others too confuse the issue with notions of a ‘tribal’ Pakhtun culture and ‘tradition’, ignoring the fact that for the most part the militants of Baitullah Mehsud or Maulana Fazlullah are opposed by tribal leaders who previously held almost undisputed sway in the same areas. Neither offers a solution to the problems of people who essentially seek a greater role in the making of decisions about their own destiny.
The extent to which ethnic issues determine what happens in the state is evidenced too by the matter of the Kalabagh Dam. The minister for water and power has now re-affirmed the project has been scrapped, and says that the decision in this respect is final. This announcement will create some dissent in Punjab. The whole matter has become one of provinces pulling in opposite direction; it has also become one of pride rather than good sense. Amidst this tussle, it has become impossible to look objectively at the dam and its possible developmental benefits. It is possible that it may have brought some. But the fact is that the ethnic friction it created was so damaging, pitching groups of people against each other, that the decision to abandon the reservoir is almost certainly a wise one. A dam that resulted in so many further divides within an already weakening federation could serve no useful purpose at all.
In the IDP situation too, the ethnic realities are visible everywhere, and not just in Sindh. In NWFP, hundreds of people have opened up homes to the nearly two million people displaced from the war-hit areas. Keys to unused homes or rooms that lie empty have been handed over to IDPs in many places. In Punjab, in Sindh and indeed in Balochistan, the misery of the displaced is just as visible. The TV images beam in just as they do in the Frontier. The appeals for help are heard everywhere. But the generosity of spirit seen in the Frontier is in many ways absent. Even though relief goods have been handed over, there has been opposition in parts of Punjab to the location of IDP camps close to their residences and the provincial government itself seems somewhat confused about the issue.
The News for more
By Peter B. Reiner
In the fall of 2005, the Dalai Lama gave the inaugural Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society lecture at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, DC. There were over 30,000 neuroscientists registered for the meeting, and it seemed as if most of them attended the talk. The Dalai Lama’s address was designed to highlight the areas of convergence between neuroscience and Buddhist thought about the mind, and to many in the audience he clearly achieved his objective. There was some controversy over his being invited to deliver this lecture insofar as he is both a head of state and a religious leader, and for that reason he largely stuck to his prepared text. But he strayed from the text at least once, reminding the audience that not only was he a Buddhist monk but also an enthusiastic proponent of modern technology.
Elaborating, he shared a confidence with the audience, telling the audience of scientists that meditating was hard work for him (even though he meditates for 4 hours every morning), and that if neuroscientists were able to find a way to put electrodes in his brain and provide him with the same outcome as he gets from meditating, he would be an enthusiastic volunteer. It turns out that a recent set of experiments, from researchers at MIT and Stanford, moves us a step closer to making his wish a reality.
Scientific American for more
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Progressive Nepali Forum in Americas (PNEFA) reiterates its previous stand that President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav’s move has not only violated the constitution but also seriously undermined the legitimate mandate of a democratically elected civilian government in Nepal. While reinstating the fired Chief of the Army Staff the President
has overstepped the boundary of the constitution as well as the norms and values of parliamentary democracy. He has acted in a regressive and reactionary way, a move
reminiscent of Mahendra Shah and Ganendra Shah’s assumption of executive power through dismissal of the elected government in 1960 and 2005 respectively. We also condemn all political parties including Nepali Congress and CPN(UML), which instigated the President to launch the constitutional coup.
Instead of correcting regressive move of the President and reinstating civilian supremacy, Madhav Kumar Nepal, a loser from two constituencies in last year’s Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, has been declared the Prime Minister of Nepal through unethical alliance of status-quoists and regressive forces with overt support and blessings of foreign powers, which have threatened the peace process and
installed two power centers with military supremacy. This has not only undermined and violated established democratic values and norms of civilian supremacy but also insulted Nepali people’s aspiration for change and a new Nepal with democratic republican federal setup. We firmly believe that incorporating losers of the CA elections in the new council of ministers headed by another loser is a mockery of democracy and unbearable insult to the sentiment of Nepali people and popular mandate.
We urge all sovereign Nepalis: intellectuals, civil society leaders, patriotic, democratic, progressive, and reasonable and rational minds of all walks of life to condemn this unfolding grotesque political drama regardless of personal and ideological affiliation and express solidarity to the ongoing movement for civilian supremacy, democracy, peace and rule of law in Nepal.
We urge members of the sovereign Constituent Assembly to nullify the
unconstitutional act of the President and safeguard national independence by saying NO to foreign powers who meddle in the internal affairs of Nepal.
We do not accept Madhav Kumar Nepal and others, who were rejected by the people, in the council of ministers as legitimate government of Nepal and ask them to step down to facilitate the process of democratic solution of current political impasse. We believe in the unflinching unity among patriotic and republican democrats to safeguard national unity and independence.
Abi Sharma
President – PNEFA
From SANSAD
Painting by Dai Dudu, Li Tiezi, and Zhang An, 2006, oil on canvas – Image mapping with titles and wikipedia links
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